SYNOPSIS:

A frail boy, and a magnet for bullies, John Singleton Mosby is a loser. That is until Aaron Burton, family slave and friend, teaches him to ride, hunt, and most importantly, how to fight back. His philosophy changes Mosby’s life, and his view on slavery. Although his Virginia family has always owned slaves, John’s friendship with Absalom, Aaron’s only son, puts Mosby at odds with his father…and the antebellum South. Later in college, Mosby’s bravado lands him in jail when he shoots the town bully in self-defense. Noble Turpin, the victim’s brother, can’t avenge his brother with Mosby locked up, so he attacks what John loves––he lynches his best friend, Absalom. Impressed with his prosecutor, William Robertson, Mosby asks him to tutor him in jail to become a lawyer. After seven months, and a governor’s pardon, Mosby passes the bar exam. A rebel among rebels, Mosby never wanted Virginia to leave the Union, but when secession arrived, along with his friend William’s body, riddled by Yankee bullets, his decision came easy. No stranger to tyrants, the Confederacy’s poor chances suited Mosby, but this war meant Aaron would lose much more. Mosby enlists, and takes Aaron and his philosophy to war. Ever faithful, Aaron serves Mosby in a fight that seems black and white, but by 1865 it is SOMETHING GRAY for Mosby. Mosby is assigned to Grumble Jones’ cavalry and stunned to see one of the officers is Noble Turpin! In the haze of battle at Manassas, Turpin tries to settle their score, but he’s hit by an artillery round and believed dead. Maimed and disfigured, Noble recovers in a Union hospital with a body as twisted as his mind, and once exchanged, uses his new position in the Confederate Secret Service to go after Mosby. Meanwhile, Mosby distinguishes himself as a scout and lands on JEB Stuart’s staff, eventually earning his own command for his daring exploits. Operating behind enemy lines in Virginia, his quick-strike cavalry hits fast with guerrilla tactics and vanishes. Known as the Gray Ghost, he wreaks havoc on the Yankee invaders, pulling more and more Federals from the frontlines to battle the 43rd battalion––Mosby’s Rangers. As his fame grows with Stuart and Lee’s admiration, Turpin’s chances for revenge fade. But despite his victories, Mosby knows the South cannot win unless the odds change. His gutsy capture of a Union general behind enemy lines, inspires a bold plan to end the war in one swift move––kidnap President Lincoln! The Confederate Secret Service contact, Mal de Fezint, assigns their spy John Wilkes Booth to Mosby, and together they slip into Washington to nab Lincoln, but Lee’s unexpected surrender ends the mission. In despair, Mosby returns to Virginia to disband his guerrilla force, when Lee sends a courier…the kidnapping is now an assassination, and must be stopped. With the war lost, neither Lee nor Mosby can abide cold-blooded murder, a desperate move by Richmond’s government that will destroy any Federal goodwill in the future peace. Unbeknownst to Mosby, the disfigured man behind it all, Mal de Fezint, is Turpin. Can Mosby stop his own government, avenge Absalom, and save the man every Rebel loathes?